Seeking Dolly Parton

Whew - this one is a slog to sit thru.

Wonder if we'll ever move thru this tedious millennial generation of upper middle suburban kids thinking they can make "gritty" real-life films just because the parents footed the bill for them 1) to go to film school and 2) mount their first "indie".

The narrative on this one is thin - the self-induced and fixated upon angst of "alternative of lifestyle" challenges. I think the suburban film school kids thing this is cutting edge stuff - or else they're $$$ cunning enough to ride "The L Word" wave" for as long as it curls.

Of course the "cinematography" is very studied - the director seems to have quite the penchant for placing the actors to either the far left or far right of the screen frame - it's interesting the first couple of times, but after dozens and dozens of instances of the techniques it get more than a little predictable.

And, of course, again de rigeur for the well-heeled film school suburban kid, there's lots of "gritty" settings of down and out dusty small towns and urban laundromats and 10-table "cool" neighborhood eating parlors. Ahh, yawn ...

And, of course, even the characters are supposedly very edgey independent gals, there's the intrusion of the unwitting affluent suburban parents - always the parents - in a showcased scene.

Well, by now, you must have the drift of my assessment of this thing - it's awful, it's boring, it's just so bourgeoise.

And, btw, the music is awful and edited in with atrocious awkwardness - the the dialogue, which I fear, is much ad libbed is banal par excellence.

There it is. :-)

I gave this movie some minor attention. But it was only a second choice when "Devil Doll'-1964 was in a commercial break on Friday Night Frights. The title caught my interest, but there was no mention of the reference in the other two reviews, so I may have missed what the story had to do with Dolly Parton when I surfed back to the other channel. The subject matter of the film (lesbians looking for a sperm donor from a homeless gay ex) a little far-fetched unless you live in San Francisco, was not something I was at all interested in sitting through. Perhaps if I were younger, it might have captured my interest, but I couldn't get past the mumbling dialogue and several contrived acting scenes by all cast members. I have phenomenal hearing too, so it wasn't me. Perhaps it was a lousy sound engineer. There was also no captioning available. Not worth finishing in my opinion based on all of the above detractors.

A very good story of love and finding truth with a great cast and excellent directing. Very good acting.